First App | Steve Jobs | Google Play | App size | Did you know?

Mobile devices have radically changed how we communicate, conduct business, consume entertainment, and manage our lives, all thanks to Apps. But where did it all started? Which was the first App ever? How big is the App industry? What was Steve Job’s role in shaping the ‘App Store’? Let’s look at some of the less-known facts about the booming App Industry!

The First App ever

It’s difficult to pinpoint one person or team responsible for making the “first ever” smartphone app since, in reality, apps are just computer programs that happen to be on a mobile device. However, we can trace the genesis of smartphone apps as we known them today back to the emergence of PDAs, mobile computers, and a silly little game called Snake.

The First App at App Store & Play Store

Apple opened its App Store in 2008 at the time of the iPhone 3G launch. It started out with just 500 apps. Google launched the Android Market in 2008 with only a handful of apps including ‘Gmail’.

Steve Jobs ‘Not Allowed’ at ‘App Store’

Since Steve Jobs died in October of 2011, people have looked for a myriad of ways to remember Apple legend Steve Jobs. Making an iOS app about Steve Jobs? Think different, Apple says…Apple doesn’t approve Steve Jobs-themed apps for sale in its iTunes store.

App Industry is bigger than Hollywood

The App Industry Is Bigger Than Hollywood. Yeah! You heard it right. Before 2008, Apple’s App Store didn’t exist. Today, it’s bigger business than Hollywood. The amount paid out to iOS app developers 2014 – over $10 billion – now exceeds the amount taken by Hollywood at the box office. Of course, there are additional streams of revenue for Hollywood beyond the US domestic box office. But Apple’s App Store is not the complete revenue picture either. There’s Android, for a start. There’s also ads and services and custom development. The app economy also produces more jobs in the US than Hollywood – 627,000 for iOS alone, compared to 374,000.

The app industry is outstripping other digitally distributed content too. It’s a bigger business than TV programs, movie rentals and purchases put together.

App Store & Steve Jobs

It may seem hard to believe, but when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world, he was opposed to third-party apps, and wanted developers to create web apps that could be used through the device’s mobile Safari web browser. Jobs told developers back in 2007 that “You’ve got everything you need if you know how to write apps using the most modern web standards to write amazing apps for the iPhone today,” he said. ”We think we’ve got a very sweet story for you. You can begin building your iPhone apps today.”

However, web apps never really took off, and Steve changed his mind — announcing in October, 2007, that a software development kit for the iPhone would be available the following year. In July, 2008, the App Store was born.

Google Play & Google Play Store

Google Play originated from three distinct products: Android Market, Google Music and Google eBookstore. The Android Market was announced by Google on 28 August 2008, and was made available to users on 22 October. Google eBookstore was launched on 6 December 2010, in the United States after extensive speculations regarding its release. On 6 March 2012, the Android Market was re-branded as Google Play.

The Google Play Store is the official pre-installed app on Android devices which provides access to the Google Play store. It allows users to browse and download music, books, magazines, movies, television programs, and applications from Google Play.

Cap on App Size

The App size limit allowed on Google Play has been increased from 50MB to 100MB. This limit serves two purposes. First, it ensures developers write code efficiently and keep an eye on the overall size of their project. Secondly, it ensures users don’t have to wait too long to download the app or game, install it, and open it. The file size limit is now 50MB for APKs that target Android 3.2 and lower (API level 13 or lower). For APKs that target Android 4.0 and higher (API level 14 or higher), it’s now 100MB.

Number of Apps (as of July 2015)

The App size limit allowed on Apple’s App Store has been increased from 2GB to 4GB, letting developers release apps that are up to 4GB in size. The extended limits will likely be useful for high-quality game titles that need the extra space to introduce improved graphical effects or longer playtimes. Please keep in mind that this change does not affect the cellular network delivery size limit of 100 MB.

Feel free to post any less-known fact that you can add to the list…Thanks!

Related Articles

Today’s smartphones are incredible little machines. We’ve grown so used to our iPhones and Android handsets that we take them for granted even though there’s so much cool technology packed into them. Take their sensors for example. Do you know how many different kinds go inside a smartphone?

Since the time Android rose to power and an era of smartphones began, users have been dealing with a serious and sometimes annoying issue. Limited internal storage capacity has been a matter of concern for the smartphone users since time immemorial. Many have a SD card slot to expand the storage. SD cards are inexpensive and can be easily moved from one device to another. However, android apps are downloaded by default to the internal storage, which can fill up quickly.

About STS

Software Testing Studio is an attempt to share some incredible knowledge from industry leaders & experts, which should be helpful for anybody to start his/her career in ‘Software Testing’ or to progress it further. Apart from the technical nitty-gritties, one can also find some intellectual posts by industry experts sharing their Wisdom.